Water slides have come into recent vogue, particularly in the seashore resort areas where as a diversion to swimming in the ocean and riding the surf, the bather can ride flexible mats along predetermined shallow water flow paths as defined by flumes which carry water from a starting pool at some given vertical elevation to a landing pool displaced therefrom and at a lower elevation. Either natural water is supplied at the upper end of the starting pool and discharged at the landing pool or pumps are provided for continuously circulating the water from the landing pool to the starting pools for gravity traverse down the flumes and subsequent return for collection at the landing pool.
One such type of water slide is set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 3,923,301 issuing Dec. 2, 1975, to Dwight L. Myers.
In general, the starting and landing pools and the intervening flumes have been constructed of reinforced concrete and embedded in natural or prepared earth formations. The reinforced concrete provides particular problems with respect to climactic changes giving problems due to expansion and contraction. The water slides once created are virtually impossible to move. The surface of the concrete readily abrades the skin of the users of the water slide and in some cases presents esthetic problems.
Attempts have been made to construct water slides consisting of one or more flumes mounted on an open wooden or metal framework and in which case the flumes being made of sheet metal or laid up fiberglass provide a surface which is sufficiently smooth to permit the mat carrying the user to move with little friction, particularly with the water over the course of the flumes. Again, such structures are limited in their esthetics, are fixed in terms of the curvature or path taken by the flumes, are extensive and once assembled, again are virtually impossible to dismantle for reconstruction on a different site.
It is, therefore, a primary object of the present invention to provide an improved water slide including at least a plurality of flumes which take different and individualistic paths from given common or separate starting pools to common or separate landing pools, which can be readily mounted to the surface of a natural or prepared earth mass or on an open framework and in which the starting pool, the landing pool and the flumes interconnecting the same are manufactured of a limited number of standard interconnected arcuate and straight acrylic modular sections.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an improved water slide of the type in which the modular flume sections may be reversed to provide right or left throws for the flume water flow path as defined by end-to-end abutting flume sections, and wherein the sections include integral hand rails on each side thereof of varying height, depending upon the curvature of that section or an adjacent section thereto.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an improved water slide of this type wherein said modular flume sections are formed of acrylic and include transition sections permitting transition between curved and straight sections or curved sections of opposite throw with proper change in hand rail height, depending upon the direction of curvature change.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an improved water slide of the type wherein a plurality of flumes extend from individual starting pools which may be at different heights and terminate at a common landing pool and wherein the water supplied to the various starting pools for given flumes may be selectively controlled to permit operation of the water slide with water flow to selected pools depending upon usage demand.
Further objects of the invention are set forth in the following paragraphs.